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Worthwhile Read

I’ve been anxiously awaiting Kara Goucher’s latest blog in which she’ll recap her awesome finish at the Olympic Marathon Trials. I love Kara. She seems so normal although she’s really a total badass! Well, anyway, she still hasn’t posted anything but Adam (her husband and fellow badass runner) did so i thought i’d check it out.

I loved every word he wrote!! I really related to so much of what he wrote. He says, “The people who really have to suffer are the coaches, the parents, and the spouses. Our nerves do not go away when the race begins. Our nerves persist every step of the race causing a completely different type of agony than what the runners are experiencing.” So true! Every time Keith has done a race and i’ve been on the sidelines, I’m a wreck! We know more than anyone, how hard that person has worked to get to where they are; how many countless hours they’ve put in and how many sacrifices they’ve made. We’re also the only people that truly know how much that race means to them.

I thought about this not only from the perspective of watching Keith though. It is the same way for me when I have runners out in a race….and will certainly be this way when i have first time triathletes. As a coach, we are really submersed in the details, the good, bad, and ugly. This is kind of like the pat on the back though. The icing on the cake. You’ve taken these people from point A to point B and the race is the grand finale.

It’s so exciting to see a runner pushing themselves to reach new goals and soar beyond the limits they thought they had. Every runner second guesses himself at some point in training and we, as fellow runners, get this. While I will never stand on the line at the Olympic Marathon trials, I was just as excited for the girls who did as if they were me.

Adam says in his blog, “One thing that has become increasingly clear to me over the past few years is that although each runner is incredibly unique, we are all the same. No matter the level, we are family. It is why we can get just as excited when a runner qualifies for Boston or breaks seven minutes in the mile for the first time, as we can when an elite runner makes an Olympic team….Meb Keflezighi, Ryan Hall, Abdi Abdirahmani, Shalane, Desi, and Kara all earned the chance to represent the United States in London. But as runners we know they are also representing each of us who share these roads with them. Because they are just like us. Because we understand what it takes to reach our maximum potentials. Because we are all part of the running family.”

I’ve always said, i really feel like my fellow runners are my family. Maybe a little odd, dysfunctional family but isn’t that what family is. Runners support fellow runners, understand the disappointment of a bad run and the excitement of a PR, and share a special bond. I’m happy to be part of such a big family.